I first studied the life and achievements of Nikola Tesla as a child in the mid-'50s. He had an incredible mind. particularly in maximizing the power and efficiency of electrical components. Thomas Edison, for one, stole some of his ideas when Nikola was a mere "employee". Later, on his own, Tesla gave away some patentable ideas that would have made him billions in today's money.
But this is not news to you guys. I'm thrilled that Elon Musk has chosen to honor Tesla with a series of groundbreaking electric vehicles bering his name.
My beef is not saying his name correctly. Tersla was a Serbo-Croatian, and his last name is pronounced "TESH-LUH", not "tess-luh".
The original pronunciation sounds stronger and more impressive IMHO. "Tess-luh" has hardly been used in the TV and online commercials so far, so it's not to late to get it right.
Can't be done? For over 25 years, 99% of Americans thought those little German sports cars were made by "Porsh". In the mid-'70s the company started saying "Por-shuh" in television ads, and everyone picked it up.
Louis Chevrolet and his two brothers were top American race drivers in the 'teens and twenties of the 20th century. Talk about an easy foreign name to mispronounce! William Durant hired Louis and purchased his last name for a new GM car, and everyone pronounced it correctly from the start because Chevy dealers and radio ads reinforced the pronunciation, which became more universal after one of the brothers won the Indy 500 in the twenties.
Maybe one of you has Elon's ear and can pass this on?
But this is not news to you guys. I'm thrilled that Elon Musk has chosen to honor Tesla with a series of groundbreaking electric vehicles bering his name.
My beef is not saying his name correctly. Tersla was a Serbo-Croatian, and his last name is pronounced "TESH-LUH", not "tess-luh".
The original pronunciation sounds stronger and more impressive IMHO. "Tess-luh" has hardly been used in the TV and online commercials so far, so it's not to late to get it right.
Can't be done? For over 25 years, 99% of Americans thought those little German sports cars were made by "Porsh". In the mid-'70s the company started saying "Por-shuh" in television ads, and everyone picked it up.
Louis Chevrolet and his two brothers were top American race drivers in the 'teens and twenties of the 20th century. Talk about an easy foreign name to mispronounce! William Durant hired Louis and purchased his last name for a new GM car, and everyone pronounced it correctly from the start because Chevy dealers and radio ads reinforced the pronunciation, which became more universal after one of the brothers won the Indy 500 in the twenties.
Maybe one of you has Elon's ear and can pass this on?